If you were to ask me about snowboarding as a sport I would not be able to tell you much about it. I know that involves a lot of tricks and if I had to name a famous snowboarder the only one I could tell you would be Shaun White (and that’s because he had a game that was named after him). He might be the most famous now, but a few years ago he often became second after Kevin Pearce.
They were initially close but their friendship started falling apart and a rivalry started to form. In order to stay on top the tricks they were doing had to get more complex. Red Bull built a half-pipe just for White to practise with a special pit filled with soft foam to try out new moves. Seeing this Kevin Pearce needed to follow suit. He had a half-pipe built and learned new tricks with the help of a safety cushion. When he got the confidence he started doing the things he just learned and during one of his runs everything went horribly wrong. This documentary opens with that moment and the consequences it has on the rest of his life.
It is very surprising that despite his very serious injuries Pearce wants to get back on top, even if everyone around him advises him to stop because chances are very big that he will not survive another crash (as he even has a scar in his brain tissue because of his accident). It is understandable as he grew up doing nothing but snowboarding and you don’t just leave such a life behind you. What are you supposed to fall back on? You see him struggling to face the reality of his situation.
Extreme sports have become very popular during the last couple of decades. As this documentary makes clear they are called so for a reason. Something which used to be done occasionally by a stuntman is now done by athletes. Whether it is jumping bikes, skateboarding or in this case snowboarding, the risks they take are huge and the consequences can be as extreme as the sport. Various snowboarders talk about their sustained injuries. They have been lucky to continue after recovery, but some have lost their lives.
The extreme part is what makes these sports pull in crowds, but what is the cost of that? These athletes will keep doing their tricks as long as the competition does so as well. So if ramps get higher they will perform despite the higher risks. Very shortly motor racing is mentioned and as the documentary 1 shows, safety is something which will only get better if the people in the sport push for it, whether that’s organizers or a union of athletes. Safety and extreme sports might seem two terms that do not belong together, but after watching The Crash Reel I wonder what is more important: Entertainment or a life?
Good to hear you enjoyed this one. Same as me. I felt like it touched upon an important point – the fact that this is an extremely dangerous sport, and yet the sponsors are more callous with their sponsees than they should.
Kevin’s story was really well told. Good documentary.
Yeah, I really did. Hope things change, but I think that will not happen anytime soon.